Wednesday News: “Chuck Schumer is thinking big” As He “gets his game changer”; “A Crazed GOP Wants to Cancel Baseball, Coke and Big Business”; Boehner Says Trump Incited “Bloody Insurrection”; “Virginia’s GOP is playing a losing game”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, April 7.

• Millions Are Tumbling Out of the Global Middle Class in an Historic Setback
• IMF Lifts Global Growth Forecast, Warns of Diverging Rebound
• ‘Ecocide’ movement pushes for a new international crime: Environmental destruction (Absolutely, this should be one of the most serious crimes there is and prosecuted accordingly.)
• Your Diet Is Cooking the Planet (“Quit wasting food and eat less meat.” Or preferably no meat at all.)
• China flanks Taiwan with military exercises in air and sea
• Uneasy lies the head that wears Jordan’s crown
• ‘A biological Fukushima’: Brazil COVID deaths on track to pass worst of U.S. wave
• Brazil’s coronavirus death toll passes 4,000 a day for first time (“Covid crisis ‘out of control’, says expert as president Jair Bolsonaro continues to resist lockdown”)
• NASA releases spectacular photo of rainbow on Mars
• One third of Covid-19 patients experience psychological or neurological diagnoses over 6 months, study shows
• Scientists Race To Develop Next Generation Of COVID Vaccines
• Why China is still clinging to coal (This is a huge problem.)
• “We Are Hoarding”: Why the U.S. Still Can’t Donate COVID-19 Vaccines to Countries in Need
• How Debt and Climate Change Pose a ‘Systemic Risk to the Global Economy’
• Likely Legal, ‘Vaccine Passports’ Emerge as the Next Coronavirus Divide
• Biden accelerates timeline for adults to qualify for vaccines
• Jamie Dimon says economic boom fueled by deficit spending, vaccines could ‘easily run into 2023’
• Jamie Dimon Sees ‘Goldilocks Moment’ for U.S. Economy
• Biden administration to launch massive funeral assistance program for covid victims
• The Senate just moved one step closer to sanity (“A ruling by the parliamentarian allows the filibuster to be circumvented — but it’s still not enough.”)
• Democrats Have Discovered a New Route Around the Filibuster (“A surprise ruling from the parliamentarian opens the door.”)
• Chuck Schumer is thinking big — gridlocked Senate be damned (“The Senate majority leader said Democrats’ current opportunity comes around ‘maybe twice a century.'” Better move fast, though.)
• Schumer gets his game changer
• Facing midterm headwinds, House Democrats target fewer districts
• Yellen: ‘We lost four important years’ in fight against climate change
• A ‘Just Transition’ clean energy revolution can be a boon for West Virginia — and the country
• GOP’s Trump obsession is giving Biden an opening
• Boehner book excerpt accuses Trump of inciting “bloody insurrection”
• Share of Democrats in U.S. Spikes After Biden Win, Poll Shows (A Gallup poll conducted from January to March showed that 49% of respondents consider themselves Democrats or leaning that way, while 40% consider themselves Republicans or lean that way…Only 25% of U.S. adults firmly identify with the Republicans, down from 29% late last year.”)
• Georgia Republicans can’t admit the real reason they’re restricting voting
• Republicans Have Declared War on Coca-Cola and Baseball
• A Crazed GOP Wants to Cancel Baseball, Coke and Big Business
• As Biden Pushes Major Rail Investments, Amtrak’s 2035 Map Has People Talking
• A Brief History Of How Racism Shaped Interstate Highways (Let’s face it, the interstate highway system was a disaster in almost every way…racially, environmentally, etc.)
• Biden Ramps Up Pressure on GOP, Some Democrats in Spending Pitch
• Bezos supports Biden’s infrastructure push, backs corporate tax rate hike
• Democrats offer competing tax ideas on Biden infrastructure (“Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, characterized the 28-percent figure as ‘a prudent compromise’ that ‘moderates and progressives would be wise to support.’ The GOP argument that U.S. businesses cannot compete globally at that rate, Beyer added, is contradicted by history.”)
• The terms of the debate on tax policy have been reset (“Democrats must seize this moment.”)
• Letter From Former Senior National Security, Military, and Elected Officials Calling On Congress To Create A Bipartisan 1/6 Commission
• What an analysis of 377 Americans arrested or charged in the Capitol insurrection tells us (“But by far the most interesting characteristic common to the insurrectionists’ backgrounds has to do with changes in their local demographics: Counties with the most significant declines in the non-Hispanic White population are the most likely to produce insurrectionists who now face charges.”)
• How status anxiety drives the right — and threatens more violence (“The Jan. 6 insurrection was only an extreme manifestation.”)
• The Fear That Is Shaping American Politics (“False or not, the white minority prediction has become a dominant political narrative — particularly insofar as Republicans exploit this characterization — and in the process this framing has become a central element in the worldview of many conservative whites.”)
• Fears of White People Losing Out Permeate Capitol Rioters’ Towns, Study Finds
• A New Study Draws a Line from January 6 to Charlottesville
• Marc Elias Fought Trump’s 2020 Election Lawsuits. Can He Win The Battle Over Voting Rights?
• Why We Are (And Should Be) Talking About Voting Rights Right Now
• How Republicans are trying to prevent people from voting after ‘stop the steal’
• The Trump media era ends not with a wow but a whisper (“Trump’s grip on our attention has collapsed.”)
• Mainstream media run with right-wing spin about Georgia’s voter-suppression law (Disgraceful.)
• McConnell Lashes Out at Corporations Criticizing Voting Restrictions Laws (In sum, Moscow Mitch wants corporations’ money and their “speech” when he agrees with it, but not when he disagrees with it.)
• The GOP threats against ‘woke’ corporations are toothless — exactly as intended
• Jen Psaki Stuffs Fox News’ Peter Doocy in Metaphorical Locker During White House Press Briefing
• Doormen Who Stood By After Brutal Attack on Asian Woman Are Fired
• Minneapolis use-of-force instructor: Officers not trained to use knee on neck
• The Trump White House provided reporters with a gusher of leaks. With Biden, everything’s changed. (Poor, poor White House reporters, lol.)
• Betsy DeVos Takes Her Assault on Public Schools Back to the States
• Yes, the Georgia election law is that bad
• The unserious comparisons between Colorado’s voting laws and Georgia’s new one
• Colorado Vs. Georgia Voting Laws: What Are The Differences?
• The Conservative Movement’s Favorite Legal Theory Is Rooted in Racism (“TerBeek’s research—which spanned 14 archival collections, thousands of newspapers and magazines, and interviews with key players—all points in one direction: Originalism has fundamentally racist roots.”)
• Harris Is Moving Into Newly Renovated Official Residence
• Justice Breyer says big Supreme Court changes could diminish trust (Breyer needs to resign, ASAP.)
• Alcee Hastings, congressman who was impeached as a judge, dies aged 84
• Tucker Carlson Goes Full Revisionist On The U.S. Capitol Riot (“The Fox News personality’s spin on the deadly insurrection has been slammed as ‘gaslighting garbage.'”)
• Tucker Carlson launches dishonest and passionate defense of Capitol insurrectionists
• John Boehner called Sean Hannity a ‘nut.’ That’s way too kind.
• NRA leaders defend bankruptcy petition in court hearing, saying the move is necessary to protect the gun lobby’s existence
• Kyrsten Sinema Defends Filibuster as Pressure Mounts From Progressives
• Kyrsten Sinema is misleading her constituents. And she almost surely knows it.
• Mississippi Elections Chief Warns Biden May Register ‘Uninformed,’ ‘Woke’ College Voters (WTF?)
• Matt Gaetz, Loyal for Years to Trump, Is Said to Have Sought a Blanket Pardon
• Atlanta mayor issues executive order against Georgia’s new voting law
• Scoop: Caitlyn Jenner explores run for California governor (Hard pass.)
• Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson On Transgender Health Care Bill: ‘Step Way Too Far’
• Arkansas is first state to ban gender-affirming treatments for trans youth
• For Virginia GOP gubernatorial hopefuls, post-Trump era starts with big emphasis on ‘election integrity’ (The Big Lie, in other words, combined with suppression of African-American votes.)
• Michael Flynn endorses pro-Trump Virginia GOP candidate (The fact that an endorsement by this extremist, seditionist, traitor, etc. could even be remotely *considered* a positive tells you all you need to know about today’s GOP/Q)
• Virginia Republicans Choose Their Statewide Nominees on May 8, While Early Voting for Dems Starts in 17 Days. Where Do We Stand Right Now? (Former Del. Chris Saxman (R) has a “Republican Statewide Survey of 472 participants” and a “Democratic Candidate survey [that] is still developing”)
• Virginia’s GOP is playing a losing game (“Rather than nudging the party away from Trumpism, however, most of this year’s Virginia Republican gubernatorial hopefuls are doubling down on the lie that President Biden stole the election — a turnoff for educated suburban voters who have turned the state solid blue.”)
• Video, Live Blog: First Televised Debate Between the Five Democratic Virginia Gubernatorial Candidates From 7 to 8 pm Tonight
• The five Democratic gubernatorial candidates met for a debate — what did they say?
• McAuliffe Takes Jabs From Fellow Democrats in Debate (“Both Carroll Foy and McClellan attacked McAuliffe’s record on gun legislation, criticizing a 2016 compromise deal that strengthened some gun control measures while reversing a policy that would have invalidated concealed handgun permits in Virginia held by residents of 25 other states.”)
• Justin Fairfax Accuses Terry McAuliffe of Treating Him Like Emmett Till (For the record, Till was tortured to death, as was George Floyd, while Fairfax was *credibly accused* by two women of sexual assault. There is ZERO comparison.)
• Virginia lieutenant governor says he was treated like George Floyd or Emmett Till when told to resign over sexual assault allegations (Jennifer McClellan nails it: “The murders of Emmett Till and George Floyd were traumatic and triggering for generations of Black people. The Lt. Gov’s comparison was shocking, unseemly, and insensitive.”)
• Democratic candidates for governor differ on police reform in first formal debate (Not really, other than Lee Carter.)
• Diverse field of Democratic candidates for Virginia governor faces off in debate
• NEW VIDEO: Jennifer McClellan Highlights Family History, Continued Fight for Justice (“McClellan reflects on how Jim Crow and systemic racism impacted her parents and grandparents’ lives”)
• Jennifer Carroll Foy Raises $1.8 Million in Q1, Has More Than $2.3 Million Cash On Hand (Campaign argues this “Cements Status as Only Progressive with Resources to Win”)
• Why Are Virginia Republicans Hiding From a Debate? (“Virginia Republicans may simply be hiding from answering questions about the extreme views that define the GOP primary.”)
• Tuesday (4/6) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds +1,434 Confirmed/Probable Cases (to 627,605), +90 Hospitalizations (to 26,815), +41 Deaths (to 10,401)
• Editorial: Make marijuana legalization happen in 2021, not 2024 (It’s probably up to Senators Chap Petersen and Joe Morrissey.)
• Virginia Eliminates Immigrants’ Work Requirement for Medicaid
• Virginia to reinstate work search requirement for unemployment recipients
• President Biden visits COVID-19 vaccine site at Virginia Theological Seminary
• Susan T. Gooden column: Celebrating excellence in Virginia government
• Virginia Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy Launches Virginia Voices Storybook Project
• Hampton and Newport News police used facial recognition app, then denied it
• Video: Meet the Democratic Candidates For Alexandria Mayor, City Council; Also, Alexandria Dems Straw Poll Results
• Opinion: Virginia Beach needs more from city leadership
• D.C.-area forecast: Spring in full swing with nice weather through tomorrow, then more clouds and shower chances.